Tag: NBA

The 2015-16 NBA season is upon us, so it's time to take a look at the updated rankings for all 30 active franchises. To see last year's list click here, and to see all my fantastic sports rankings and lists, go here.
The Criteria
The categories and point values are as follows:
30 points for a league championship, and 15 points for a Finals loss.
2 points for a playoff berth.
5 points for each playoff round win (does not include a win in the Finals).
4 points for a division title (starting in 1970-71).
1 point for a winning season, -1 point for a losing season.
3 points for a regular-season winning percentage better than .730 (60 wins with the current schedule), -3 points for a regular-season winning percentage worse than .270 (20 wins with the current schedule).
Consecuti

When we talk about "cursed" sports towns, it's almost always in the context of things like postseason or championship droughts, heartbreaking losses, or just general futility. In other words, Cleveland. I kid, I kid.
But to my way of thinking there's something even worse than falling just short of ultimate glory over and over again, and that's losing a pro franchise entirely. Whether it's the result of a greedy owner or a lack of fan interest, the death of a sports team is always at least a little sad.
And so I set out to document just with cities and states have lost the most professional teams from the four major leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL). I could expand it to other leagues as well, but I'm not sure that cities mourn the loss of indoor soccer teams quite like they do basebal...

The 2014-15 NBA season is officially underway, so I'm just a little bit late with my updated rankings of all 30 franchises. So let's get started.
If you want to check out my other pro sports rankings — and I know you do — you can find them on this handy page.
The Criteria
The categories and point values are as follows:
30 points for a league championship, and 15 points for a Finals loss.
2 points for a playoff berth.
5 points for each playoff round win (does not include a win in the Finals).
4 points for a division title (starting in 1970-71).
1 point for a winning season, -1 point for a losing season.
3 points for a regular-season winning percentage better than .730 (60 wins with the current schedule), -3 points for a regular-season winning percentage worse than .270 (2

Old sports magazine? Check. Cool set of vintage sports logos? Check. Prototypical post material? Double check.
This guide to the 1969-70 NBA season, published by The Sporting News, is a wonderful snapshot of an era of the league long past.
Of the 14 teams shown here via logos, five have since taken on a new location and/or identity. Gone are the Cincinnati Royals (Sacramento Kings), San Francisco Warriors (Golden State Warriors), Seattle Supersonics (Oklahoma City Thunder), Baltimore Bullets (Washington Wizards), and San Diego Rockets (Houston Rockets).
And of the nine teams that still go by the same name, only the Chicago Bulls have retained the exact same logo and colors. The rest have since been modified either slightly -- Celtics, Lakers, and 76ers -- or rather drastically

This week I started rolling out my newest and most ambitious project yet, and paradoxically the one I've spent the least time promoting -- The Press Room. Basically, the Press Room is an extension of my popular and beloved gallery of American Football League covers but with one major difference.
Not content to waste dozens of hours scouring the internet for vintage AFL programs, I've decided to expand to all four of the major North American pro sports leagues -- MLB, NFL, NHL, and NBA. So I've begun the long, painstaking task of assembling a collection of images from those four leagues featuring game programs, media guides, yearbooks, and more. I'm hoping to be able to cover just about everything up until the early 1990s.
I use that as the cutoff point for no particular reaso

I’ve gone through my logo rankings for the NFL and MLB, so now it’s time for the NBA! If you want to see which logos I picked as the best for those leagues, I’ve provided this handy reference page. Otherwise, let’s do some roundball logo reviews. I’m going to take this at an easier pace than I did with football and baseball, so this will be running throughout the NBA's regular season.
In the last edition I covered the Northwest Division, so up next are the five teams of the Western Conference’s Pacific Division — the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, and Sacramento Kings. As always, most of these are sourced from Chris Creamer’s outstanding logo website.
Golden State Warriors
Best
Warriors fans might be surprised to find this logo

OK, I've ranked the 10 worst NBA franchises ever (as of 2013), so now it's time to look at the best of the best. The formula is pretty simple. I’ve ranked all 30 NBA franchises according to a series of categories, each of which is assigned a point value. I then divided the total point value by the number of years each team has been in existence and ordered by that.
If you want to check out my other pro sports rankings -- and I know you do -- you can find them on this handy page.
The Criteria
The categories and point values are as follows:
30 points for a league championship, and 15 points for a Finals loss.
2 points for a playoff berth.
5 points for each playoff round win (does not include a win in the Finals).
4 points for a division title (starting in 1970-71).
1 poi

The 2013-14 NBA season tips off in just a few weeks -- October 29 to be precise -- so it's time for me to continue my series of recaps looking at the best and worst franchises in each of the four major American sports leagues. Today I look at the rankings for the 10 worst NBA franchises ever.
As with the NHL best/worst and NFL best lists I've already done, the formula is pretty simple. I’ve ranked all 30 NBA franchises according to a series of categories, each of which is assigned a point value. I then divided the total point value by the number of years each team has been in existence and ordered by that.
The Criteria
The categories and point values are as follows:
30 points for a league championship, and 15 points for a Finals loss.
2 points for a playoff berth.
5 points for

For this, the second volume featuring photographs of vintage billboard ads, I'm tightening the focus a bit. This group of billboards was displayed in the Phoenix, Arizona area in 1969 and advertised the new Phoenix Suns basketball team.
The 1969-70 season was the franchise's second in the NBA, and it was the year they made a dramatic turnaround from 7th place to 3rd. This was thanks in large part to the addition of Connie Hawkins (#42, who appears in a few of the ads), who came from the ABA and went on to the Hall of Fame. Hawkins led the Suns to a 39-43 record, and they nearly won their first-ever playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers until they lost three straight games.
All images courtesy Duke University's Digital Collections site. Click for a larger version.
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